The Forgotten
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 34
  3. Negative: 8 out of 34
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    91
    It struck me as the most exciting and original Hollywood thriller, occult or otherwise, since "The Sixth Sense."
  2. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    Turns out to be a grade-A B-movie that grounds its thrills in particulars of time, place, and character, so that when the time comes to make the leap into the wholly preposterous, we do so willingly. This is a movie that earns our trust -- and then happily abuses it.
  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    75
    This is a movie that earns its suspense and validates its emotions, especially its examination of the bond between mother and child.
  4. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Jon Strickland
    70
    Midway through, the plot pulls itself out of its doldrums with a sudden, heart-twisting turn. Ruben still knows how to cut a sequence for maximum jolt, and, ultimately, he and DiPego manage to summon up some of the B-movie paranoia that fueled "The Stepfather," turning in a pleasantly nonsensical roller-coaster ride.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    63
    The stylish and imaginative imagery in director Joseph Ruben's film, not to mention the parapsychological twists and mysteries, evoke the work of director M. Night Shyamalan.
  6. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    60
    Begins as a perfectly reasonable thriller and ends up rather an inane one.
  7. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    60
    Outlandish but gripping paranoid thriller.
  8. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    A thriller of carefully cultivated murk. It's enigmatic in the worst sense, in that every explanation for what's going on holds less water than the last.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    Sustains a few icy chills, but a mix of genres muddles the story.
  10. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    The Forgotten is not a good movie, but at least it supplies a credible victim (Moore).
  11. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    50
    The ending of The Forgotten leaves you feeling the same way, wondering just how much -- if anything -- of what came before actually happened.
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    50
    The picture never comes out from under the weight of its dreariness, despite fine acting, foot chases and conspiracy theories galore.
  13. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    This could easily go down as the year's best example of solid acting in a wretched motion picture.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    There is nothing worse than a thriller that doesn't play fair... The Forgotten is just a big, fat, obvious cheater.
  15. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    By the self-contradictory and ludicrous end, I had the mixed satisfaction of being proved right in my disappointment. (Di Pego wrote the equally silly "Instinct" and "Angel Eyes," so I can't say I was surprised.)
  16. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Director Joseph Ruben's best efforts can't keep Gerald Di Pego's puzzle-picture script from toppling into absurdity as it lurches from melodrama to psychological thriller with supernatural overtones to full-blown exercise in X-Files-style nuttiness.
  17. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    50
    The movie works reasonably well at this for its first half, but by then we've pretty much figured everything out.
  18. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    50
    Ultimately only Moore, with her eyes always half-damp and voice half-cracked and body language half-mad, keeps the movie on the ground, when it too often threatens to fly into the thin air, where the audience would laugh it off the screen.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    A spare, streamlined thriller for the conspiracy-minded, Area 51 crowd, The Forgotten perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    It's really weird. Has its share of visceral surprises. Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done.
  21. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    An uneasy mix between "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the "The X-Files," and one not nearly as smart as either.
  22. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    40
    There isn't much here any semi-regular viewer of "The X-Files" hasn't already seen a dozen times before.
  23. Empire
    Reviewed by: Will Lawrence
    40
    A premise neutered by daft supernatural shenanigans, which raise as many questions as they answer.
  24. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Mark Holcomb
    40
    The resolution is as surprise-free as it is improbably sunny.
  25. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    40
    Such unabashed ludicrousness can be fun, in a brainless sort of way, especially when it's coupled with lots of sudden defibrillator jolts underscored by crashing cymbals. If there's one thing The Forgotten has, it's plenty of cardiac moments.
  26. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    40
    It's poppycock, but well directed: Ruben delivers two or three guaranteed jolts, which almost make up for the copout of an ending.
  27. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    The last act, when the movie falls apart like a cheap toy, is both a deus ex machina and an anticlimax.
  28. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    38
    The worst crime perpetrated in the Swiss-cheese screenplay by Gerald Di Pego ("Angel Eyes") is the cynical use of a mother's love for her child as a plot device for an intelligence-insulting sci-fi dud.
  29. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    All this dreary movie has is a terrible whodunit payoff.
  30. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    30
    My favorite line from the movie: "The god---- truth won't fit in your brain." How's that for cheap gimmicks for getting out of having to make a movie make sense?
  31. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    30
    Though it soon devolves into a laughable mess, The Forgotten at least spends its first 10 minutes or so raising provocative questions.
  32. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    30
    In the preposterous thriller The Forgotten, a pseudospiritual, mumbo-jumbo, science-fiction inflected mess, the director Joseph Ruben does not just fail to tap into Ms. Moore's talent; he barely gets her attention.
  33. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    25
    Tedious and incoherent thriller.
  34. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    10
    It's "The Sixth Sense" as nonsense, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" without the sunshine. Or the mind.
    All this critic's reviews

User Reviews

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User Score
5.5 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 119 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 66
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 66
  3. Negative: 31 out of 66
  1. Lopez17
    5
    What if someone told you that your child never existed that it was all just apart of your imagination that you dreamed up a happy life, with a happy little boy/girl. Then one day you wake up and that child is suddenly forgotten pictures, videos, friends everyone who knew your child suddenly has forgotten that he/she ever existed. Joseph Ruben's "The Forgotten" explores themes relating to the above statement, Ruben's film tells the story of a grieving mother named Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) who fourteen months ago lost her nine-year-old son Sam in a plane crash and every day she goes to her and looks at his precious baseball cap and catcherâ… Full Review »
  2. WriteFilmLive21
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. "The Forgotten" is, in short, a movie quite worth forgetting. The initial premise is intriguing - Julianne Moore plays a mother who lost her son in a plane crash, only to realize that the child was supposedly stillborn and she has invented 9 years of memories with him. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long at all before the film goes from interesting to bland and silly. At 91 minutes, the movie is astonishingly short for what it's trying to do, resulting in consistent overpacing - it feels you've only been watching 10 minutes before Moore's confronting the idea that her son never existed, and about 5 minutes later she's joined up with a father in a similar predicament and on the run from NSA agents. And just when this movie seems to strike the most basic level of boring, our characters come to the realization that their kids are still alive, and have really been . . . (sigh) . . . abducted by aliens. Really? Aliens? We went from an engaging psychological thriller to aliens? And of all the scientific research priorities such aliens would have upon discovering our species, the one they choose is kidnapping children to see if they can dissolve the parent-child bond? Is this a drama or a comedy? The main alien villain (who shows up about 5 minutes in and is a patently obvious "secret" antagonist right off) is probably the blandest and most nonchalant extraterrestrial ever put to film, whose one single freak-out moment is reserved for a cheap CGI face gimmick and a bunch of breaking glass (because, you know, yelling solves everything). And outside of Moore herself, the rest of the characters might as well be forgotten also, because they're about as memorable and deep as the aliens. Honestly, this film should have ended 20 minutes in - Moore finds out she's nuts, she's locked up, the end. Nice, neat, and a big time-saver. A shame her talents went toward such a lazily-written film.… Full Review »
  3. Critic2012
    4
    The Forgotten begins with an intriguing premise: however, as the story develops, the audience realizes that the film may not be so psychological as it is supernatural. The film had lots of potential, but it didn't follow through.… Full Review »
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